A process which greatly improves the efficiency of washing fabric by machine with a liquid detergent is described in European Patent Application No. 85 40 06 52.5, published under number 0,151,549. According to this process, a device containing a liquid detergent and having ports is placed in the drum of the washing machine together with the fabric to be washed. The detergent progressively enters the fabric and the washing bath through ports as soon as the machine is started. According to one embodiment, a predetermined quantity of liquid detergent is poured into the device through a filling orifice, and at the end of washing, the device is recovered for reuse. This process is in wide-spread use in Europe and has enjoyed great commercial success.
Devices have been developed making it possible to carry out the above-mentioned process. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,872 issued Nov. 3, 1987 to Cornette et al., discloses a device having at least one filling orifice and ports for releasing the liquid progressively into the fabric during washing. The device comprises a body and an attached assembly which is intended for the filling and/or diffusion of the liquid. This assembly can be mounted permanently on the body or, instead, can be removable. Such an assembly can have a central filling orifice and ports distributed over its periphery. According to an advantageous embodiment, the filling orifice has the form of a shaft penetrating into the body. The device preferably has an essentially spherical shape. This shape is, nevertheless, in no way limiting.
A technical problem which arises with regard to liquid detergent compositions is the mutual incompatibility of some constituents of the composition with others. This is true, for example, for liquid detergent formulations and bleaching constituents, intended for releasing active chlorine or oxygen. In these situations a reaction beneficial to cleaning occurs upon mixing. If the constituents are mixed and shipped together, the reaction occurs within the container rather than in the wash. This is especially true for peroxygenated constituents based on perborates. It is impossible to allow a perborate-based bleaching agent to come into contact with a liquid detergent composition, otherwise there is the risk of a prior reaction causing the peroxygenated compound to lose all its effectiveness.
The subject of the present invention is an especially simple and elegant arrangement of a device for the washing of fabric by machine, which particularly makes it possible to carry out the washing process with detergent constituents which are not satisfactorily compatible with one another.
The device according to the present invention is intended more particularly for the packaging of liquid detergent ingredients, while at the same time making it possible to achieve a separate presentation of other constituents having a specific action, the said other constituents being put in solid form. A person skilled in the art will understand that the device of the invention is designed to allow the packaging of a liquid detergent formulation and at least one other solid product, the properties of which are such that they contribute to the washing by performing their specific function, most advantageously at predetermined moments in the cycle.